ID Please of this plane

[tkoutdoor]

Hello,

I got a picture of a plane on approach to our local Air Force Base that I haven't seen before and I wonder if someone here knows what it is. It looks like one that belongs on a Navy ship with wings that fold back. It looks to be carrying some kind of torpedo(s) and maybe additional fuel tanks or other type of ordnance. At any rate, I just don't know what to call it.

Here's a link:
EDIT: A new photo has been posted further down.

I don't really know if it's too dark on the average monitor or not either so I wouldn't mind hearing how it looks on your equipment to get a sense of the output quality to SRGB.

The lens is the 100-400L and the rest should show up in the Exif.

Regards,
Tim

[hard12find]

E6B "Prowler" electronic warfare plane.
Nice shot.
JB

[tkoutdoor]

E6B "Prowler" electronic warfare plane.
Nice shot.
JBThanks for the info and the comment. How is it exposed on your screen? Does it look too dark or just right? You should be able to see detail under the wings in the shadows if it shows up to you how I created it and reviewed it in jpeg form. My work monitor is telling me it's dark, but everything looks dark on it.

[Mumby]

What he said ^

And yes, that is a nice shot!

Paul

[adamsti]

It's not too dark, but it's got too much blue. The plane is grey.

[tkoutdoor]

It's not too dark, but it's got too much blue. The plane is grey.Thanks, I'll modify it and repost for another review later. Should be able to drop down either the vibrance or saturation to get it just right. I'm at 10 and 5 on them I think, dropping vibrance is prolly the ticket I think. I thought there might be a camouflage shading pattern that started at light gray on the bottom and tended towards a little bluish on top for camo for above and below. Easy to tweak though.

[rockabilly808]

prowler

[PhotosGuy]

prowler Nathan, do you ever read the other posts? ;)

[rockabilly808]

Nathan, do you ever read the other posts? ;)

ya, just thought I'd restate the obvious:lol:

[tkoutdoor]

Thanks for the help in identifying the plane. It appears to be the EA-6B prowler as opposed to E6B prowler according to the docs I can pull up based on your description. Does that seem right or was there actually an E6B also?

Here's an updated file with color corrections. The body colors should be realistic I would think. The colored windows have a little more color to them in real life and in the RAW file I'm working with. The jpeg conversion process trashes some of the color and I don't know how to counter it currently.

I can't help but wonder if they were in the middle of repainting this plane and that could have been the reason to come to our local AFB. It looks like the decals/numbers may have been stripped to prep for new paint. The only numbers that look normal to me (compared to the other planes I shoot from this place) are the numbers at the nose and tail.

[WMDunkin]

EA-6B prowler most def.

i don't think its going for paint. it wouldn't have anything under the wings if it was.

[JVolz]

Does that seem right or was there actually an E6B also?

No, just the EA-6B, which was developed from the original two-seat EA-6A electronic warfare platform, the airframe of which itself is derived from the attack version of this plane, the A-6 Intruder. The workload on the EA-6A became too much for a two man crew and the fuselage was lengthened in order to add two more electronic warfare crew members. The Prowler is reaching the end of it's career, and will soon start to be replaced by the EA-18G "Growler", which is the electronic warfare derivative of the two-seat F/A-18F "Super Hornet". Advances in electronics and computers have allowed them to go back to a two place aircraft.



I can't help but wonder if they were in the middle of repainting this plane and that could have been the reason to come to our local AFB. It looks like the decals/numbers may have been stripped to prep for new paint. The only numbers that look normal to me (compared to the other planes I shoot from this place) are the numbers at the nose and tail.

The gray numbers/letters/insignia are actually the standard Navy Tactical Paint Scheme proper colors. many a/c in USN service are all low-viz, even the modex, which is the black number on this one. Nice shot.

Hope this helps.

[tkoutdoor]

Hope this helps. Fantastic! I appreciate the detailed explanation. I no longer have to wonder if I somehow shot or processed the image wrong, though I didn't think I had (due to the low vis lettering).

Do you know what the symbols mean on the tail? Is there a website or book that gives a listing of such things that I could refer to in the future? The symbol appears to include a sword, a lightning bolt, and a nuclear diagram. I understand that the colored glass above the crew has radiation shielding qualities so I'm guessing the symbol is related to that. I've already found some good websites on this plane (thanks to the ID information), but not all planes are painted with the same things on the tail so it appears to be relative to the segments of the Armed Forces that it is attached to. The "Franken Prowler" was an interesting twist in this planes history.

I'm shooting a "Warbirds" airshow this weekend in Olympia, WA. I love the history and fascination of these flying hunks of metal. The military aircraft have a rich history generally. I shot this same airshow last year and that's the day I've created the single most pictures in my history of shooting. I shot 1,250 in a day (1,100 at the airshow) and I still ran out of space and had to delete on the fly to get more room. I think this year I'll come home with more yet as I have a better and longer lens than last year. I underexposed my stuff last year and since then I've figured out manual exposure, the proper shutter speed for prop blur, "exposing to the right", and have purchased the 100-400L IS. Aside from having a camera that could focus more consistently and faster there's not much room left to improve and I should get a high percentage of really good shots. I've also been shooting planes here and there for practice and it's been going fine so I'm really looking forward to the airshow tomorrow.

[Chet S]

years ago (1965) I controlled this aircraft , as an air traffic controller -- good to see her again ---

[FatAlbert]

One of my favourite airplanes, along with its strike brother the A6 Intruder. Looks like it was made for the Carrier environment. Great shot and thanks for sharing.

[JVolz]

Fantastic! I appreciate the detailed explanation. I no longer have to wonder if I somehow shot or processed the image wrong, though I didn't think I had (due to the low vis lettering).

No problem.

Do you know what the symbols mean on the tail? Is there a website or book that gives a listing of such things that I could refer to in the future? The symbol appears to include a sword, a lightning bolt, and a nuclear diagram. I understand that the colored glass above the crew has radiation shielding qualities so I'm guessing the symbol is related to that. I've already found some good websites on this plane (thanks to the ID information), but not all planes are painted with the same things on the tail so it appears to be relative to the segments of the Armed Forces that it is attached to. The "Franken Prowler" was an interesting twist in this planes history.

The symbol on the tail is the squadron insignia for VAQ-129, which is the joint Navy/Marine Corps replacement training squadron for the Prowler. Each individual squadron has a different symbol. The tail code on this a/c, "NJ" is related to the training squadrons in the Pacific Fleet, in this case the only one for this type of aircraft. All Pacific Fleet air wings carry tail codes starting with N and all Atlantic fleet wings carry codes beginning in A.



Glad to be of help.

[aviography]

EA-6B Prowler still operates out of Naval Air Station Whidby Island off Seattle, see http://naswi.ahf.nmci.navy.mil/.

The funky color of the windshield/canopy is metallic coating to prven electromagnetic emission from going in or coming out to/from the cockpit.

The aircraft is a Electronic Warfare aircraft for the US Navy, and does land and take-off (or catapauled) from aircraft carriers.